Federica Mogherini proved successful in reaching the ultimate goal for women leaders: she found her voice. Though this will not be enough to guarantee her success, it is a great start.

Women are still a minority at the helm of Foreign Policy and International Relations. In the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, only two members out of 18 are women, while in the House of Representative they are five out of 46. In the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, there were 20 women out of 73 in the 2009-14 legislature and they are today 13 out of 71.

Likewise, women are a minority in international senior positions. In the European Commission, between 1957 and nowadays, the ratio is even lower: 10 to 1. At the Pentagon, only 16 percent of senior positions are filled by women and only 29 percent of the chiefs of mission at the State Department and of senior foreign positions at USAID are held by women. In other words, at the leadership level, women in foreign policy and international relations still have a long way to go, as if the glass ceiling were too thick to break.

On Halloween night, the European Commission — Europe’s “executive” — changed. At the helm of foreign policy, Lady PESC — as Catherine Ashton was known — gave way to Mrs PESC, as Federica Mogherini prefers to be called. Two different women leaders, two leadership styles in foreign policy.

On Halloween night, the European Commission — Europe’s “executive” — changed. At the helm of foreign policy, Lady PESC — as Catherine Ashton was known — gave way to Mrs PESC, as Federica Mogherini prefers to be called. Two different women leaders, two leadership styles in foreign policy. The right time for an assessment and for a preview of what it is possibly to come.

Lady Catherine Ashton was named EU High Representative in November 2009. Her early days in office did not progress well, undermining her image and stance for a long time. Her nomination in November 2009 had come as a surprise: Ashton had been an EU Commissioner for a few months but she was little known to the European public, let alone to the rest of the world. Her name came in after months of speculations over whether a high-caliber politician would take the job. Hence, Ashton was seen as a living proof of the unwillingness of the EU to matter on the world scene.

“At times in foreign policy we make mistakes because we act too quickly without first properly understanding how things really are.” This is recurrent complain among foreign policy geeks, but it takes a certain bravery to say so — on the record and in the world’s most prestigious think tank — if you are one of those people that actually leads the world’s foreign policy.

“At times in foreign policy we make mistakes because we act too quickly without first properly understanding how things really are.” Sure enough, this is recurrent complain among foreign policy geeks, but it takes a certain bravery to say so — on the record and in the world’s most prestigious think tank — if you are one of those people that actually leads the world’s foreign policy.

Yet, this is exactly what Italy’s Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini said in her address at the Brookings Institution, adding that there is a need to link analysis to action in order to stop faulting. Contrary to the use in Italian diplomacy, the minister was talking without a written speech or even talking points: Such refusal to use a predetermined text — where such words would have never found space — further testify of her courage and tells a lot about her leadership style: casual and relaxed, yet confident.

Mogherini, 41, mother of two, is the youngest foreign minister in the history of modern Italy. However, when an (Italian) member of the audience asked how she managed, being such a young woman, she politely dismissed the question saying that only in Italy a woman in her 40s is considered young. Privately, she admits that she can do it all because “my husband is a saint and I get a lot of help from my mother,” though she tries hard in her few spare moments to just be a “normal” mother, walking her girls to school or the like.

Workplace harassment is a particularly serious and growing phenomenon. Yet, in most countries, there is little awareness and even less so legal protection against it.

As we celebrate the International Day for the elimination of Violence against Women, it should not be forgotten that violence can happen in different forms: psychological violence — whether it is in the family or in the workplace — can be as dangerous as the physical one, in extreme cases leading to suicide or death, though in this case there will be hardly someone prosecuted for the crime.

Workplace harassment is a particularly serious and growing phenomenon. Yet, in most countries, there is little awareness and even less so legal protection against it. There is not even a single definition of what is meant by workplace violence or harassment. Violence is a generic term that covers all kind of abuse: behavior that humiliates degrades or damages a person’s well-being, value or dignity. A variety of behaviors fit into the definition of harassment or bullying; cultural differences also contribute to different understandings as to what constitutes violence.